Cell phones are being monitored more than ever before

Law enforcement agencies in the United States have requested more user information than ever before, according to wireless providers. Personal text messages, locations and other information was requested more than 1.3 millions times in 2011, The New York Times reported. Wireless companies were prompted to turn over thousands of personal records each day in response to police emergencies, court orders, law enforcement subpoenas and other requests. In some cases, however, carriers rejected demands that were considered “legally questionable or unjustified.” The U.S. congress requested reports from nine carriers, including Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T, in regards to law enforcement agencies’ increase use of cellphone tracking. Over the past five years, AT&T has seen normal request triple to 700 per day, 230 of which were classified as “emergencies” and allowed access to a users texts, calls and locations. Sprint reported the largest number of request in 2011 with an average of 1,500 per day. Other carriers reported annual increases of between 12% and 16% in the last five years.